The pilot who crashed during a loop at
Shoreham Air Show killing 11 people had not told organisers of his
plans, an interim report has revealed.

The Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) report says it was not possible for organisers to identify potential hazards before the event on August 22 last year without being aware of where the pilot would fly.

Pilot Andy Hill, 51, crashed the Hawker Hunter onto the A27 outside Shoreham in one of Britain's worst air show disasters.

The 1959 vintage plane failed to pull out of a loop-the-loop stunt and crashed onto the dual-carriageway, exploding into a fireball.

The report reveals he had been caught flying too low and too close to the crowd at Southport air show in 2014, a year before the crash, but the incident was never logged by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and "no further action" was taken.

The AAIB reports says it was a missed opportunity which could have "provided an opportunity to explore the pilot’s continued competence" and has recommended that pilots are immediately suspended where their "competence is in doubt" pending an investigation by an independent examiner.

It also wants the CAA to publish a list of all incidents where pilots are given "stop calls".

Mr Hill had been granted his Display Authorisation certificate by a member of the same flying team, it has revealed.

The report now recommends the CAA ensures that evaluators have "no conflict of interest" with the pilots they are assessing. - Telegraph.

Plane crashes near Española, New Mexico

New Mexico State Police says they are “handling a plane crash near the San Juan Airport near Española.”

Police say information is limited at this time because the scene is very active.

There is no word yet on what caused the crash or if there are any injuries.

Plane crashes near Osnabruck, Germany

A half-dressed Iraqi refugee came to the rescue when a private plane crashed near his shelter in Osnabruck, Germany, on Thursday.

Hassanien Salman, a 34-year old veterinarian, had been taking a shower when he heard the crash.

Salman looked outside the former army barracks and saw the smoking wreckage. He pulled on some underwear and a T-shirt and ran outside to help.The crash occurred not long after the small plane took off from Atterheide Airport in Osnabruck. One of the engines malfunctioned and the pilot was forced make an emergency landing at the former military barracks.

The plane was destroyed and two of the four passengers were severely injured. Two others suffered more minor injuries.

When Salman reached the wreckage, two of the men had managed to escape. The two that were more severely injured were stuck. Salman managed to put out the fire using extinguishers with the help of his roommate.

After freeing the men from the plane, Salman then treated one of the men’s head injury before emergency services arrived. All of the men survived.The men were on a business flight to Braunschweig, NDR reports. Eyewitnesses say the plane was flying very low over houses. The aircraft was a 1989 twin engine Piper PA-34. Police are examining the wreckage to determine the cause of the crash. - RT.

Plane crash lands at New Zealand airport

A video has captured a plane flipping around at a New Zealand airport as it tried to land with one of its wheels missing.

Authorities said the two people on the plane that landed at Hamilton Airport in Waikato were not injured, the New Zealand Herald reported Thursday.

The video, taken by a bystander, shows the plane coming in for a landing and then flipping up on its nose.

The plane flew over the airport before landing so its damage could be inspected by the control tower and emergency services, said Hamilton Airport chief executive Mark Morgan. Airport officials then gave it clearance to land in one of the grass runways.

Morgan said the plane’s operator was “very experienced” and a witness told the New Zealand Herald that the pilot did a “beautiful job” landing the aircraft. - FOX News.

One dead in light aircraft crash in NSW Central West

A plane has crashed just south of Dubbo in the central west of NSW.

Emergency services responded on Thursday afternoon to reports of a light plane crash on a rural property in Obley, about 25km south of Dubbo.

On arrival officers located the plane alight.

An inspection of the aircraft revealed one man dead inside.

Police from Dubbo are currently on scene and an investigation has started. - News Australia.

A father and daughter duo escaped a plane crash on Sunday without injury while returning home from a college visit to URI.

Louis Obergh, the pilot, and his teenage daughter Rachel were returning home from Kingston en route to the Republic Airport in Farmingdale when they reportedly began to smell gasoline. From there, the motor shut off and the plane began going down; the pilot forced to pull the parachute built into the Cirrus SR22.

“They are the luckiest people on the face of this earth,” said Hauppauge Fire Chief Eugene Oliver by phone yesterday morning. “It’s as simple as that.”

The pair landed in a grassy field close to an industrial complex and left the aircraft with only minor injury.

“I’m going to explain it to you in real medical terms: the man got a boo-boo,” said Chief Oliver, laughing. “A little, tiny Band-Aid. That’s all they needed.”

Oliver said the crash landing could not have been better: in the middle of a field with trees to the north; a building to east.

“That plane landed 20 feet from the deadliest building in our industrial park,” said Oliver. “There are so many chemicals in there. If that plane hit that building we would still be putting the fire out.”

“They are very, very lucky,” he continued. “I’m glad it turned out the way it did. We couldn’t have asked for anything better.” - RI Central.

Small plane crashes in Limerick Township, Pennsylvania

A plane single engine plane crashed in the area of Heritage Field in Limerick Township Wednesday afternoon.

Police
say when officers arrived they found a 42-year-old man from Wayne, Pa.
walking from the crash site. He was treated for lacerations and flown to
Paoli Hospital for possible internal injuries.

He was the pilot
and sole occupant of a 1962 Mooney M20C fixed wing single engine four
seat plane.

He stated that he took off from the airport and immediately
noticed an engine issue. He turned back toward the airport then lost
all power to the engine.

He was able to bring the plane down in a
field on airport property. According to police, his quick action
resulted in no additional injuries or property damage on the ground. - FOX29.

Three die as cargo plane crashes into sea in Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh, another hospitalised

Another member of the crew has been rescued with critical injuries, police and doctors have said.

The AN-26 transport aircraft, operated by True Aviation, crashed at Naziratek Point, five kilometres off the beach town.

The accident occurred around 9:30am on Wednesday, minutes after the plane took off, according to Cox’s Bazar Airport Manager Shadhan Kumar Mohanto.

The other crew member, who was in critical condition, was later admitted to Chittagong Medical College Hospital.

Cox's Bazar Fire Service Operations Officer Abdul Majid said the plane, caught in a low tide, had drifted three kilometres away from the crash site, delaying efforts to rescue the two others.

The bodies of pilot Murad Kaparov and co-pilot Ivan Deman were found inside the plane later in the afternoon, police said.

Airport Manager Shadhan Kumar Mohanto said the cause of the crash was yet to be determined.

He said the plane was carrying 972 boxes of shrimp fry.

The Civil Aviation Authority said the Jessore-bound aircraft had contacted the airport tower for emergency landing permission minutes after taking off. It then lost communications with the control room.

The authorities said a committee would be formed to inquire into the incident.​​ - BD News24.

Plane crash near Lanseria Airport in South Africa, claims 2 lives

Two people have been killed in a plane crash on the R512 near Lanseria Airport.

Paramedics have confirmed the plane went down this afternoon.

Netcare 911’s Athlenda Mathe says it’s not yet clear what went wrong.

Picture: @_ArriveAlive.

Picture: @_ArriveAlive.

“Two people have been killed after a light aircraft crashed just 10
kilometres from Lanseria Airport on the R512. Netcare 911 paramedics and
other emergency services are on the scene. The Lanseria Fire Department
is on the scene to extinguish the fire.”

One woman says she drove past the scene a short while ago.

“I was driving from [Hartbeespoort] on the Lanseria Road; huge black
fumes of smoke and flames were sky-high and I saw what looked like a
tail-end of a plane. People had already stopped and were running towards
it.” - EWN.

Yeoval mourns pilot killed in plane crash in Australia

Officers from Recreational Aviation Australia (RVA) have scoured the site of Thursday’s light plane crash, which killed a much-loved and respected man from the Yeoval area.

The Orana Local Area Command is waiting on a report from RVA into the circumstances surrounding the accident.

While police have not officially released the name of the man, he is understood to be Brad Kerin, who owned the property Springlands on the Gundong Road not far from the site of Thursday’s accident, about 25 kilometres south of Dubbo.

The Yeoval community is saddened, shocked and deeply upset by his death, which occurred when his light plane came down in a paddock on Gundong Road, around 2pm on Thursday.

Yeoval resident Alf Cantrell said the Kerin family was synonymous with the community.

“He was much loved by everybody. Mr Kerin was heavily involved in the Catholic church in the area and he and his family worked hard on their property, which is known to so many,” he said.

“Everyone always had a good thing to say about Brad and his family. Our deepest sympathies, thoughts and prayers go out to the family following this tragedy.”

Mr Kerin operated a highly successful beef business on his property and was also the Washpen Rural Fire Service captain for a number of years. - CWD.

2 Involved In Deadly Plane Crash in Palmer Lake, Colorado

The two people involved in a deadly plane crash outside a Palmer Lake neighborhood last week have been identified.

Dan Murray, 77, of Longmont, and Jeff Kaplitz,
60, of Lafayette, were reportedly on their way to an antique airplane
convention March 2 when their plane went down, killing both. The plane
exploded into flames after crashing, gutting the aircraft and causing a
small grass fire.

The men were flying in a 1928 red Curtiss Wright TravelAir biplane. Investigators have not said what caused the crash.

"We extend our deepest sympathies to the family
and friends of Mr. Murray and Mr. Kaplitz," a spokesperson with the El
Paso County Sheriff's Office said in a statement. - KKTV.

U.S. Army plane crashes in Iraq, four crew uninjured: Pentagon

A U.S. military
aircraft with four crew members crashed in Iraq on Saturday, but none
were injured and initial reports ruled out hostile action, a Defense
Department official said on Tuesday.Earlier
on Tuesday, the top U.S. Navy admiral told the Washington Post that
Navy helicopters rescued four crew members on Saturday after an
emergency landing by a U.S. Army reconnaissance plane.The rescue mission was launched from Irbil in northern Iraq, Admiral John Richardson said, according to the newspaper."They were
up, airborne and at the location of the accident within four minutes of
the alert. That was pretty good timing,” Richardson was quoted as
saying. The plane was a
twin turboprop, fixed-wing aircraft and the cause of the crash was under
investigation, the Defense Department official said in a statement.U.S. military
commanders added more search and rescue teams to northern Iraq last year
after a Jordanian fighter pilot's jet crashed and he was captured,
tortured and killed by Islamic State militants. - Reuters.

Pilot injured in light plane crash near Mareeba, Australia

A light plane has crashed into canefields near Mareeba Photo: Nine News

A 50-year-old man has suffered minor injuries after his light plane crashed into canefields near Mareeba.

About noon on Saturday the small aircraft came down just near Chettle Road in Arriga, about 15 kilometres west of Mareeba.

The reason for the crash is yet to be ascertained.

A
Queensland Ambulance Service spokesman told Fairfax Media the pilot had
previously undergone a full hip replacement and the hip has become
dislodged as he was pulled from the aircraft.

His only other injuries were minor cuts and scratches.

He was taken to Mareeba Hospital in a stable condition. - Brisbane Times.

March 11, 2016 - JAPAN - When a massive earthquake hit Japan five years ago today, on
March 11, 2011, few realized the subsequent tsunami would cause the
worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl and leave 18,000 people dead or
missing.

News crews, CCTV footage, and people on the ground caught dramatic footage of the day.

Here are the ten must-view videos that shocked us all as the day unfolded.

WATCH: 1 - Friday March 11, 2011 2:46pm.

An earthquake measuring 8.9 on the Richter scale occurs 370 kms miles northeast of Tokyo at a depth of 25 kms.

WATCH: 2 - Tremors felt around the country.

It is the fifth largest earthquake on record and the largest ever to hit Japan.

WATCH: 3 - Out at sea giant waves begin to form.

A tsunami alert is issued in over 50 countries in the Pacific region including the west US coast.

WATCH: 4 - Japanese coast guard encounter giant wave.

Footage shows the coast guard being tossed around by giant waves produced by the quake.

WATCH: 5 - 3:35pm Tsunami hits land.

Less than an hour after the quake, 9 meter (30 ft) waves destroy towns along the country's east coast.

WATCH: 6 - Sea walls fail.

The waves easily pour over sea walls, taking boats and debris with them.

WATCH: 7 - Those who can get to safety.

Horrified on-lookers rush to higher ground to escape the water.

WATCH: 8 - Sendai airport captures moment tsunami hits runway.

Just before 4pm, the water reaches the runway at Sendai airport, easily destroying objects in its path.

WATCH: 9 - Tsunami travels inland.

The waves reached as far as 10 km inland.

WATCH: 10 - Disaster becomes nuclear.

The wave of water easily overwhelmed the seawall protecting the
Fukushima nuclear plant, cutting off power to the main control room
which operated the coolant systems of six separate boiling water
reactors.

‘Is it safe to stay here, Mom?’ Fukushima evacuees on aftermath of tragedy then and now

Five years on since a powerful earthquake and tsunami triggered the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the worst in Japanese and possibly world history, activists and the people evacuated from the exclusion zone do not believe returning to the area is a good idea.

RT spoke to some of the people who were forced to flee their homes in 2011. Many of them accuse the government of playing down the dangers from the start.

“I saw a terrifying scene on TV. There was a big explosion at a nuclear power plant. The government people and the scientists and professors, they kept saying on TV that there would be no danger,” Fukushima evacuee Hiroko Tsuzuki told RT from Sapporo, Japan.

“I was, like, ‘Isn’t that weird?’ I found out that the radiation level on March 15 was almost 200 times higher than the usual level. I was so shocked,” she said.

“In that same period my daughter’s son had a nose bleed several times. My son cried and asked: ‘Is it okay to stay here, Mom?’ I was so ignorant about these things. I could not protect my children from exposure to radiation,” Tsuzuki said.

“Radioactive contamination poses hazards far beyond Fukushima. It spreads beyond the official exclusion zone. I think it is unsafe to return children there,” Ken Sakamoto, from the Evacuation and Support Kanagawa Network, an organization that helps the Fukushima evacuees to protect their rights, told RT.

Sakamoto says that as of today, the situation of many those displaced is yet to improve.

“Today it seems that the Japanese government does not take the refugee problem quite seriously. That’s why the plight of those displaced has worsened considerably of late,” Sakamoto told RT.

WATCH: Fukushima - Five Years On.

Christina Consolo, founder and host of Nuked Radio and freelance reporter for Climateviewer.chttps://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=9023170175013209597#editor/target=post;postID=6882667612359652808om and FederalJack.com, told RT that said she was deeply concerned with the consequences the disaster will have for the future generation, stressing that there should be no place for complacency, even though five years have passed.

Earlier this month, Greenpeace warned against the government’s decision to lift a number of evacuation orders around the Fukushima plant by March 2017, adding that “the impacts of the disaster will last for decades and centuries."

“The five-year anniversary of the Fukushima Accident… is a gaping wound in our planet that will continue to bleed radiation into our food chain for at least the next 100 years, affecting our health and genetic legacy for generations to come.”

In September 2015, Tokyo came in for criticism for allowing people to return to a town which lies just 20km south of the crippled plant. That's while the cleanup is estimated to take about 40 years and the area has registered cases of flora and fauna mutations.

Nancy Foust, research team member of SimplyInfo.org and the Fukushima Project, is concerned how soon people are being allowed to return to that area.

“Many of these areas are not truly safe, they have not been properly cleaned up, infrastructure has not been put back in place,” Foust told RT.

“There is also the problem of proximity to the actual disaster site. They have a lot of complicated and very risky work that to do in the next couple of decades to remove the melted fuel,” Foust said, adding that the idea of re-locating people back from evacuations right now is “very premature and not a really good idea.”

“Restarting reactors in the manner they’ve done them is problematic. It has been very much a political move rather than a determined social need that they really need to restart them,” Foust said.

Activists had made the case that there were just not enough safety measures taken, both on the technical side of operating a reactor and for the local communities in the nearby areas, “So if a reactor does have a problem, they cannot effectively evacuate people,” Foust said.

Foust recalls the rate of children living near Fukushima diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Over 130 children were diagnosed with the cancer in the area in August last year – a 25 percent spike from the same month in 2014. The average rate of thyroid cancer in children is estimated at 1-2 children per one million.

The events of March 2011 triggered massive protests in Japan against the use of nuclear energy.

4 biggest lies about the Fukushima disaster

If hindsight is 20/20, we have a clear picture of the lies told throughout the Fukushima disaster.

Five years on, we now know which assurances from authorities turned out to be dangerously false.#1 No radiation casualties
It took more than four years for the Japanese government to acknowledge that radiation had played a factor in bringing about casualties in the Fukushima prefecture.

Of the 8,000 deaths there caused by the 2011 disaster, none were attributed to radiation leaking out of the plant. Instead, chaos during the evacuations, hardship, and mental trauma were all to blame.

It wasn’t until October of 2015 that the authorities finally had to admit that radiation from the plant had contributed to a construction worker developing leukemia. The worker in his 30s had worked at the plant between October 2012 and December 2013, where he was measured as having been exposed to 19.8 millisieverts of radiation, four times the annual Japanese limit for a worker in the nuclear industry.

The true effect on workers and residents in the area won’t be known for some time. It took between six and eight years for survivors of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan by the United States to develop acute leukemia.

#2 Not as bad as Chernobyl
Fukushima is described as the “worst since Chernobyl,” but in reality, it may turn out to be a lot worse.

Both disasters were rated seven on the International Nuclear Event Scale, categorizing them as a “Major Accident.”

Perhaps they need to turn the scale 'up to eleven' in order to reflect the severity of the Japanese disaster.

The final consequences may be far more damaging due to groundwater contamination and the number of reactors involved.

In 1986, Chernobyl had four operating reactors, one of which melted down. The remaining reactors were eventually shut down. Fukushima, on the other hand, had six operating reactors, of which three entered meltdown, and a fourth was left in an unstable condition. Only two were successfully shut down.

Fukushima’s location, situated along the sea and a former riverbed, also meant that the potential for harm in the event of a meltdown was greater than that for Chernobyl, which had no problems involving groundwater. The cleanup operation could take up to a hundred years, according to Arnold Gundersen, a former nuclear industry executive.

#3 Not poisoning children
In December of last year, in an attempt to reassure the public that the risks from radiation were already minimal, Hokuto Hoshi, head of an examination panel on thyroid cases, said, “It is unlikely that radiation is responsible for the recently reported thyroid cancer cases, given that there are no reports of cancer among infants, who are particularly susceptible to radiation.” His comments came after 16 cases of thyroid cancer in the prefecture were confirmed in children under 18 during the previous 12 months.

A study by Tsuda found that thyroid cancer rates in the prefecture were from 20 to 50 times higher than the national level, according to The Japan Times.

The findings were based on a screening of 370,000 residents, which “is unlikely to be explained by a screening surge,” according to Tsuda, who cited radiation exposure as a factor.

#4 It’s not poisoning the land
Prior to the disaster, Fukushima was Japan’s fourth-largest farming area. It has now slipped to seventh place, but its agricultural industry has slowly been growing again thanks to the Japanese government pushing to have the stigma associated with it removed.

Fifteen percent of Japanese people are still wary of buying products produced in the region, down 1.5 percent from last year, according to a survey in the Japanese paper Mainichi.

The steady resurgence in Fukushima food production can be attributed to the result of radiation monitoring tests carried out by the government, which found radiation levels in the agricultural, forestry, and fisheries sectors were below “acceptable levels” 99.9 percent of the time.

Despite the results, scary abnormalities have appeared, including fish containing 258 times the level of radiation deemed safe for consumption.Authorities say the anomaly is due to the fish feeding in a radioactive hotspot.

“Deformed” daisies were also found near the site, which were created through a phenomenon called fasciation, although they also symbolize the warning sent in the iconic 1964 TV ad for US president Lyndon Baines Johnson.

Latest research suggests that the San Andreas and San Jacinto faults might have ruptured together in the past, and may again trigger more powerful destruction.
San Andreas fault in California.
Photograph: Lloyd Cluff/Corbis

March 11, 2016 - CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES - Measuring the level of threat posed by severe earthquakes that could bring havoc to southern California should be reviewed, according to scientists who believe the risk could be greater than previously thought.

The warning follows latest research
from a US geologist who found that two large faults in the region – the
San Andreas and the neighbouring San Jacinto fault to its south – might
have ruptured together in the past, producing an earthquake that caused
damage as far north as San Buenaventura and was felt as south as San
Diego.

“Looking at old earthquakes in general is really a good way to figure out what faults are capable of doing,” said Julian Lozos, assistant professor of geophysics, California State University, Northridge, who conducted the research.

Forming the boundary between two plates of Earth’s crust, the San Andreas fault runs for around 800 miles (1,300km) through the state of California with its southern section neighbouring the San Jacinto fault.

However while the San Jacinto fault is know to be active, and has experienced several earthquakes between magnitude 6 and 7 in the last 120 years, Lozos’s research suggests a simultaneous rupture with the San Andreas fault could have resulted in a more powerful earthquake of around magnitude 7.5.

Using computer models to explore an earthquake that struck southern California in 1812, Lozos found that the earthquake most likely began on the San Jacinto fault near Mystic Lake, travelled north and then ”jumped” to the San Andreas fault.

A similar scenario today, he warned, could be devastating. “San Jacinto goes through a lot more city that the San Andreas does – or it goes closer,” he said. “The San Andreas is certainly capable of having a 7.5 [magnitude earthquake] by itself. But the San Andreas and San Jacinto [together] then brings that earthquake closer to more people,” he added.

Others have also been quick to seize on the ramifications of the study. “The preponderance of evidence is that they did rupture jointly and that is really important in terms of how we plan for earthquakes because a lot of our planning has been based on the assumption that it was either the San Andreas or the San Jacinto but not the two together,” saidProf Lisa Grant Ludwig, from University of California Irvine. ProfFred Pollitz from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) also believes the possibility of a multi-fault rupture is significant. “This is important because the size of a multi-segment rupture can be much larger than the size of a single-segment rupture, ie. one restricted to say just the San Andreas fault,” he said.

Published in the journal Scientific Advances, the new study focuses on a large earthquake that struck Southern California on 8 December 1812. Thought to be around magnitude 7.5, the event caused widespread damage, with around 40 people killed as the church buildings of the Mission of San Juan Capistrano crumbled.

But unpicking the mystery of exactly what happened has been a challenge. With no scientific observations from the time to go on, geologists at first believed the earthquake had occurred on a fault known as the Newport-Inglewood fault before analysis of tree-rings led scientists to believe that the earthquake had occurred along the San Andreas fault instead. Further evidence suggested that an earthquake had occurred further south, on the northern section of the San Jacinto fault, at a similar time. Recent research meanwhile by Ludwig, Lozos and others into precariously balanced rocks – large lumps of stone that have remained untoppled by earthquakes – also hinted that the two faults could have ruptured simultaneously.

New computer modelling by Lozos not only suggests that the two faults did indeed rupture together, but also provides new insights into the path of the earthquake. “It provides an alternative model for how the 1812 earthquake occurred, and that changes our view of how the San Andreas - San Jacinto fault system might work,” explained Prof Kenneth Hudnut from the USGS.Using data relating to the geology of the faults, their geometry and the stresses they experience, Lozos constructed a model for the San Andreas system which allowed him to explore what would happen if an earthquake had been triggered at four different locations. By comparing the results with reported damage from historical records, the locations of precariously balanced rocks and evidence of earthquakes gleaned from trenches dug across the faults – so-called paleoseismic data – he found that the 8 December 1812 earthquake most likely began in the Mystic Lake region of the San Jacinto fault in before travelling north and “jumping” across to the San Andreas fault.

“If you have got a friend that is stressed out and loses it, that is probably going to stress out their friends,” explains Lozos. “It is the same idea with faults. Faults are accumulating stress at different rates, they have different frictional thresholds. And the closer they are together the more likely they are to influence each other.” The upshot he says is that “sometimes the stress change from an earthquake – especially a pretty big earthquake – on a nearby fault might be enough to just overcome the frictional threshold and get that fault flipping.”

The study also suggests that an earthquake that jumped from the San Jacinto to the San Andreas fault fits with the occurrence of other earthquakes in the region, revealing that it could have played a role in triggering a further earthquake in the Transverse Ranges on 21 December in the same year.

Hudnut believes it’s a sophisticated model. “It is an application of state of the at dynamic modelling methods to this complex fault junction and it provides new insights and a nice new possible explanation for this devastating earthquake that hit in 1812,” he said.

Not everyone has shown as much enthusiasm. “We might be getting a clearer picture through this modelling, but I think it is not clear what changes in our hazard estimates or ideas of earthquake physics,” said Prof John Vidale, director of the Pacific NW Seismic Network. However, while Lozos admitted that existing models already allow for the possibility of multi-fracture events, he believes better simulations can improve our understanding. “I certainly think and hope that models like this will be useful in refining what a given fault junction can do,” he said.

While the study notes that it is not possible to prove conclusively that the new version of the events of the 1812 is correct, the work could help geologists unravel the nature of the San Andreas system.

“We can’t predict earthquakes but we are trying to understand them better,” said Ludwig. “Ultimately we need to know how to prepare for them because we can’t stop them.” - The Guardian.

A giant rain cloud against the sunset made for an incredible scene above Edinburgh. Photo: Caters News Agency

March 11, 2016 - SCOTLAND - A dazzling cloud formation over the skies of Edinburgh has been
likened to a Klingon ship, a fire-breathing dragon and even the hand of
God.

Tom Foster, a 26-year-old physician, was photographing the Scottish capital when he captured the brilliant scene above.

“When I first saw the cloud I knew it looked spectacular but it wasn’t until after I took the picture and looked at it on my camera that I started to see the unusual shape it made,” said the amateur shutterbug, who posted the image on Facebook.

“What I see most often is the ‘hand of God’ like quite a lot of other people do. I’m not incredibly religious so not sure about the God bit but can certainly see the hand,” he told Caters News. “But then I can also see the dragon’s head and neck. It looks like it is breathing fire.

“I love the picture because everyone sees something different in it. I’ve had hundreds of comments and messages from people suggesting different things,” he added. - NY Post.

Several weeks ago, glowing polar stratospheric clouds were spotted floating over Murmansk, Aberdeen and Stoneheaven by other lucky stargazers.

March 11, 2016 - WISCONSIN, UNITED STATES - A rare bloodstream infection is mystifying Wisconsin officials as they try to determine whether it’s behind the deaths of 18 people in the state. The illness has already affected 48 people since late last year.

According to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS), the cases have been logged since November 1, 2015, though the Division of Public Health was first notified about six possible cases between December 29 of last year and January 4, 2016. Since then, the number of cases has continued to rise, mostly affecting people over 65 years old.

The illness in question is called Elizabethkingia, a bacteria that infects the bloodstream and usually affects people with weakened immune systems and underlying health issues such as cancer or diabetes. So far, 18 people who tested positive for the disease have died, but officials haven’t been able to confirm if Elizabethkingia was responsible.

Now, Wisconsin officials have called in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to help with their investigation.

“Determining the source of the bacteria affecting patients in Wisconsin is a complex process,” State Health Officer Karen McKeown said in a statement. “While we recognize there will be many questions we cannot yet answer, we feel it is important to share the limited information we have about the presence of the bacteria, as we continue our work to determine the source.”

At this point, officials aren’t quite sure where to look. What’s notable about this outbreak is that even though Elizabethkingia is seen in many types of environments around the world, including dirt and water, the cases in Wisconsin all involve a bacteria with the same genetic fingerprint, the Washington Post reported. This has officials wondering if there’s a single source for the spate of illnesses.

"Our main priority here is to try and find out where this is coming from so that we can prevent additional cases," Dr. Michael Bell of the CDC’s Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion said to Fox6.

"It could be getting into either a food supply or medication system or you name it, any number of ways.”

Typically, health labs only see a case or two of Elizabethkingia every year. And while it can usually be treated with antibiotics, the Wisconsin DHS noted it is multi-drug resistant.

“It’s safe to say that the outbreak is still ongoing and no source has been identified, but we're leaving no stone upturned with what is causing the outbreak,” CDC spokesman Tom Skinner told WKOW.

March 11, 2016 - MEDITERRANEAN - Researchers find that the animals are being shot and trapped for
food and the pet trade, with the majority of the deaths occurring at
just 20 sites.

A new study
finds that an estimated 25 million migrating birds are killed as they
fly over Mediterranean countries each year. The deaths—by gun, net, or
glue-covered traps—include several threatened species. Most of the birds
end up being eaten as delicacies. Some are shot for sport, while others
are captured alive and sold in the caged-bird trade.

Many bird species living in the Mediterranean are in decline owing to habitat loss, said Stuart Butchart, head of science at BirdLife International and
a coauthor of the study. This mass killing could further threaten many
species while also affecting the region's environment.

"Birds play an integral role in ecosystems, from pollinating plants and
dispersing their seeds to controlling populations of insect pests,"
Butchart said."Disturbing the balance of ecosystems by
substantially changing bird abundance through illegal killing and other
impacts will certainly have impacts beyond the birds themselves."

He cited the example of India, where some vulture species have declined by 99 percent or more because of poisoning by the veterinary drug diclofenac.
The drug is used to treat livestock and contaminates vultures when they
feed on dead animals. "This has led to a rapid increase in the feral
dog population, as vultures no longer dispose of animal carcasses, and
consequent increases in rabies cases among people," Butchart said.

The pet trade in the Mediterranean affects more than 450 species, according to the study. Some
birds—such as the blackcap, the European turtledove, and the song
thrush—are being taken from the wild in numbers approaching 1 million or
2 million each.

Butchart said the trade puts several species at risk. The Eurasian
curlew and the ferruginous duck, for example, are both considered "near
threatened," while the European turtledove is "vulnerable," meaning it
is close to being endangered. "All are taken in numbers that are of
concern given the size of their populations," Butchart said.

The killings and trade appear to exist throughout the Mediterranean
region, including in five European Union nations. The country with the
highest number of bird deaths was Italy, with at least 3 million
killings. Malta, Cyprus, and Lebanon had the highest density of bird
deaths—as many as 667 birds per square kilometer. The bird trade in
Cyprus became infamous after a 2010 New Yorker report by Jonathan Franzen.

Cyprus, according to the researchers, was one of the four worst
countries for Mediterranean bird deaths. Egypt, Lebanon, and Syria also
appeared on that list. The researchers found that just 20 sites
in those four countries were responsible for the bulk of the killings—as
many as 8 million birds a year.Syria may be on the list
because of the political unrest in that country. "It is difficult to
know, of course, but the breakdown in security may well have made things
worse in terms of illegal killing of birds," Butchart said.

Identifying these sites may be critical to saving the birds. "The fact
that 40 percent [of the deaths] come from just 20 locations is quite
significant," Butchart said. "It actually presents a conservation
opportunity, because it possibly makes it easier to focus efforts to try
and address the problem."

Indeed, plans developed by BirdLife and other conservation groups in
Egypt, Libya, and Cyprus aim to reduce the number of birds killed in
those countries. BirdLife said the goal is improved regulations and
better monitoring, as well as actions to help specific species.

Butchart said it's too early to know if the plans are doing any good,
"but we hope that they will help. The major challenge is to raise
awareness so that people realize the much wider consequences of their
illegal actions, often beyond their national borders."

That's going to take some effort. Previous surveys have revealed that
the people of Cyprus don't see bird trapping as an issue, perhaps
because they do not see the broader impact. BirdLife has spent the past
few years campaigning
there to change public perception, including making presentations at
schools in the hope that the next generation of Cypriots will help to
make a difference for the birds flying over the country's killing
fields. - Takepart.

March 11, 2016 - COSTA RICA - Experts from the National University's Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica (OVSICORI) on Thursday reported that Rincón de la Vieja Volcano, located in Guanacaste province, has seen increased vapor activity and explosions.
Strong explosions were recorded on Wednesday at 1:54 p.m. On Thursday at
about noon, a tall column of vapor and ash was visible on top of the
volcano's crater.

Local residents told OVSICORI that ash had fallen on the roofs of their
homes in an area six kilometers around the volcano, mainly in
communities north of the crater in Upala and Buenos Aires.

Volcanologist Javier Pacheco on Thursday said activity at the volcano had been low in the past 15 years, but monitoring equipment recorded an increase in deposits of volcanic material in the crater.

Ash, mud and vapor explosions intensified last year, but
inspections in recent months found that material mostly fell in the area
surrounding the crater. Some of this material also fell on rivers
located north of the volcano, mostly carried by rain during the past
rainy season, Pacheco said.

OVSICORI experts recommend that visitors avoid getting too close to the
volcano's crater. The region is a popular destination for tourists
attracted by the volcano as well as several lodging options including
hot springs resorts.

Costa Rica's volcanoes in recent years have seen a noticeable increase in eruptive activity.

A report from the International Union for
Conservation of Nature (IUCN) revealed that at least 1,338 rhinos (stock
image) were murdered across Africa in the past year.

March 11, 2016 - AFRICA - The number of African rhinos killed by poachers in 2015 increased for the sixth year in a row.

A report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) revealed that at least 1,338 rhinos were murdered across the continent in the past year.

This is the highest its been since 2008 when South Africa banned trade
in rhino horns, leading conservation body IUCN said on Wednesday.

The slaughter has been driven by demand for their horn in countries such
as China and Vietnam, where they are prized for their purported
medicinal properties.

The horn is composed mainly of keratin, the same component as in human
nails, but it is sold in powdered form as a supposed cure for cancer and
other diseases.

Trade in rhino horns was banned in 1977 by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites).

The international treaty was set up in 1973 to protect wildlife against
over-exploitation, and ensure that trade in specimens of wild animals
and plants does not threaten their survival.

However, the practice was only banned in 2008 in South Africa, which is
said to be home to 20,000 rhinos or 80 per cent of the world's rhino
population.

IUCN Director General Inger Andersen said despite stepped up
surveillance by field rangers there had been 'alarming increases in
poaching over the past year in other vitally important range states,
such as Namibia and Zimbabwe' both of which adjoin South Africa.

Demand for rhino horn from South East Asia is being illegally supplied
by sophisticated transnational organised crime networks, the IUCN said.

They are sold for about $60,000 a kilo on the black market, making it more expensive than cocaine.

'The extensive poaching for the illegal trade in horn continues to
undermine the rhino conservation successes made in Africa over the last
two decades,' said IUCN expert Mike Knight.

On the plus side, poaching in Kenya decreased over the past two years and went down for the first time in South Africa in 2015.

According to experts, there were between 19,000 and 21,000 white rhinos
in Africa last year and between 5,000 and 5,500 black ones. - Daily Mail.

March 11, 2016 - EARTH - Sinkholes swallowing cars and people, meteor fireballs raining down,
and volcanoes erupting all over the place - for the shortest month of
the year, February 2016 sure was eventful...

Last
month, there were many spectacular volcanic eruptions in Mexico,
Guatemala, Nicaragua, Indonesia and Japan. Elsewhere, the Earth
literally opened up to kill a man in Arizona, while a giant fissure
swallowed a river in southern Mexico. Major earthquakes included a 6.4
magnitude tremor in Taiwan that toppled buildings and killed 33 people,
while another strong quake (5.9M) struck Christchurch, New Zealand,
which is still rebuilding after a devastating earthquake struck the
South Island city in February 2011.

A lot of
spectacular meteor fireballs were caught on camera last month. On just
one day, February 6th, there were 3 notable meteor events: NASA recorded
a massive overhead explosion in the South Atlantic Ocean; a second
meteor shook homes when it exploded over Denmark and sent meteorites to
the ground; and a third meteor did likewise in southern India, killing a
man who had the misfortune of becoming the first official case of
'death-by-meteor'. The bolide that exploded over the South Atlantic was
the largest to hit the planet since the Chelyabinsk event, almost three
years to the day.

The month of February saw massive stranding of whales.

Those strange 'sky sounds' were heard in North America last month, notably in the US Northeast and Quebec. Deluges brought flash-flooding to Mauritius, Fiji was flattened by its strongest ever storm, Peru was hit by devastating mudslides, and there were heavy snowfalls in parts of the US and Pakistan. Ottawa, Canada received its biggest single-day snowfall in over 100 years. Incredibly, it also snowed in Guatemala and Honduras for only the second time (the first occasion was in 2013), while Costa Rica, 10 degrees north of the equator, received its first ever snowfall.

An increasingly erratic Jet Stream coupled with a record-strong El Nino brought weather extremes to the US, with the US Southwest experiencing a record heatwave for this time of year, the US Northeast experiencing record cold temperatures mid-month, and the US South experiencing both unseasonal tornado outbreaks and blizzards. In what appears to be an increasing trend, sea life continues washing ashore in droves on beaches around the world. We also have several clips of animals going on the rampage, including the somewhat symbolic sight of a bear attacking people in Turkey.